Tag: best oil for sensitive skin

The Ordinary 5% Lactic Acid – a COVID special

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Mask-ne is real, folks. Don’t get me wrong, I am 100% pro-mask. It’s such an easy thing to wear to protect yourself and other people. But boy does it mess with your skin. Brand new breakouts on the lower half of my face, check. Extremely red, itchy and dry skin where the mask is supposed to cover, check.

What does this have to do with lactic acid, you ask, especially when I’ve already posted about it before? I consider lactic acid my official exfoliating powerhouse during this very long mask season. This will help bring acne to the surface and turn the skin cells over. Compared to salicylic acid, glycolic acid and adapalene/benzoyl peroxide combination, I found this to be the pretty clear winner. I started off using this every two days, to daily, and as of this writing, I’m back down to 3 or 4x a week usage.

As with most acids, there’s a purging period that comes with the use of this product. For me, it was a major purge. Even though I keep this product around in my medicine cabinet, I don’t use it every day, so I certainly wasn’t immune to it’s effects when switching to daily use. I felt like I was at pre-spironolactone levels of acne — goes to show how much crud was probably building up in my skin. Heck, I almost threw in the towel. But by week three, most of the acne was gone and my skin was glowing!

Lactic acid will still continue to pull up new acne even after the purging period is done, but there won’t be as much, and it will disappear quickly. In my opinion, it’s worth it for the healthy glow and smooth texture you get from this product.

Since even it’s 5% iteration is pretty strong, you’re going to want to layer up on some emollients afterwards. My favorite to use in this case was The Ordinary’s Rosehip Seed Oil. While the lactic acid is busy at work pushing the dead skin out, rose hip oil does a nice job of clean-sweeping all the grits out of the pores.

Something else that did help my acne decrease was switching from cloth masks to paper/disposable masks. I hate the idea of disposable masks because they’re just so… wasteful. I don’t need more reasons to contribute to landfills! But no matter how vigilantly I was washing my cloth masks, the cloth was a way bigger offender of trapping dirt and oil into my skin.

As with all acids, users who are new to these types of products should start off slow. You really only need two drops of this product to spread throughout your face, and should start by applying only every two days. And wear your sunscreen! Despite all my usual acid product warnings, this is a cheap little fixer-upper for $10 that got my skin back to normal under the mask. ~A

Perceived efficacy: 5/5

Longevity: 3/5

How much I actually like this product: 4.5/5

Recommended for sensitive skin: Yes, if used carefully!

The Ordinary 100% Plant Derived Squalane

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Ever feel like your moisturizing just isn’t, well, moisturizing enough? Put some squalane in it! Not only is squalane good on it’s own as a hydrating oil, I like to mix this stuff in with almost everything.

Like many other TO products, this serum comes in a dark glass bottle, to prevent oxidation. I did a little extra research on this, since I’ve bought squalane from other brands that did not have dark bottles. Apparently, the compound of squalEne is highly susceptible to breaking down when exposed to oxygen and light. It’s younger sister squalAne has a much longer shelf life, but is still subject to degradation over time, and the dark bottles will help to slow this down. In short: other companies who sell squalane in a clear glass bottle are doing it wrong (I’m looking at you, Peter Thomas Roth!)

TO has an excellent dropper, if a bit unwieldy, to take the squalane out of the bottle. Since it’s so thin, the squalane tends to spread quickly, and absorbs just as fast. Because it absorbs so fast and it’s hard to correct when i misapply the product, I always need justtt a little more product. But the droppers are easy to use and to manipulate pressure on so that you only get as much product as you need. Since a little goes a long way, and the dropper makes it easy to put excess product back in the bottle, this product tends to last me close to six months.

The squalane itself is clear, and incredibly thin — it’s almost like water. For some reason TO’s brand of squalane seems even thinner than any other squalane I’ve tried. Although you can use this as a stand-alone oil and apply this directly to your face, I typically like to use this as an additive with my moisturizers (especially Clinique’s Dramatically Different).This makes it far less likely to pill with any other skincare product you might be wearing underneath.

I used squalane at the height of my cystic acne, and never noticed it causing any break outs — I can say the same of it now, it’s definitely a great pick for anyone who has sensitive skin. It’s also great if you live in a colder climate, who doesn’t want the extra hydration when it’s 10 degrees outside? For $10, this is a long lasting staple I’d recommend for anyone’s skincare collection. ~A

Perceived efficacy: 5/5

Longevity: 4.5/5

How much I actually like this product: 5/5

Recommended for sensitive skin: Yes

Physician’s Formula Organic Wear Bright Booster Oil Elixir

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Physician’s Formula has been pushing their oil-based skincare line lately and I’ve been excited to try it, since I generally like their brand. Ugh, and the packaging — please tell me that’s not the cutest little decanter you’ve ever seen, with all the flowers printed on it!

For $13 you get 1 fl oz of this lavender-scented oil. This is a dropper bottle, and you can pull the liquid up from the base by pressing the button on top to bring the liquid into the dropper. Then, put the dropper somewhere on your face, and push to get the oil out. This dropper won’t overdo it, it tends to take in too little product for what you actually need, so you might have to repeat the process. The consistency of the oil is very thin (although not watery).

I keep reading instructions on Ulta and Amazon about how you can use this under your makeup, or for mixing with your foundation. I personally don’t understand that at all. This oil does not dry down remotely fast enough to be used as a primer, and will 100% pill any subsequent makeup. As far as mixing it into your makeup, well… usually oil tends to break makeup down, so while the application might be, at first, brighter and shinier than usual, you may notice your foundation disappears pretty rapidly afterwards. I tend to only use oils at night, either as a standalone product, in conjunction with other moisturizers, or well after the initial moisturizers have dried down.

This certainly will make your face “brighter”, but even with minimal product usage, the overall effect is more “sweaty” than bright. IE: I wouldn’t wear this out in public.

I do like the completely plant-based ingredient listing. This product has both argan and jojoba oil, which are touted as being good for skin repair. But I haven’t seen any huge leaps in my skin condition after using this, particularly with scar healing. On the plus side, it hasn’t broken me out, so this might be worth a shot for a sensitive skin user looking to try an oil.

This product reminds me a lot of Bio-Oil, except I felt like Bio-Oil delivers more results in the way of scar-healing. I probably won’t ever re-buy this product, but I am going to use the entire bottle if not for the AMAZING lavender scent. ~A

Perceived efficacy: 2.5/5

Longevity: n/a

How much I actually like this product: 3/5

Recommended for sensitive skin: Maybe